“Nevermine”

Forth Wanderers called their last album Slop—a wonderfully smarmy title backed up by hazy guitar sounds and smudged-out edges. The Montclair, New Jersey quintet’s love of distortion doesn’t make its way into their lyrics, though. Singer Ava Trilling rigorously documents the transitions and turmoil she and her bandmates have experienced since they started playing together in 2013—enduring high school, starting college, writing and recording together from across state lines. “Nevermine,” a new single from Forth Wanderers’ upcoming and eponymous second album, was assembled back and forth between Trilling in New York, and guitarist Ben Guterl in Ohio, before ultimately being recorded in Philadelphia. Happily, nothing got lost in transit.

“Nevermine” masquerades as a breakup song but says more about Trilling as an individual than as a partner. It captures that post-split epiphany, when once-blurry personal boundaries snap back into focus and independence hits like a headrush. “I don’t think I know who you are anymore/And I think I knew who I was before,” Trilling coos. She imagines her ex desperately looking through photos of her, a pinprick guitar riff in the background sharpening her jab—she’s not interested in reminiscing. The song’s title suggests emotional disconnect, but also plays on “nevermind,” the word used to retract muttered statements deemed unworthy of repetition. It’s in this spirit that Trilling blows off her ex, corroborating the idea that, sometimes, losing someone else can mean finding yourself.